It was dark by the time Ashley was arriving back at the camp with Sean and Arthur. Arthur had gone to give the score to Dutch while Sean and Ashley walked towards the campfire. Sean took a seat at the campfire but Ashley stopped to grab a bottle of beer. Ashley then wandered over to the campfire, approaching from behind Micah who was sitting at the fire with Bill, Sean, Hosea and Lenny.

"You know, Micah, you got a might big mouth but you never told us where Dutch met you" Bill hummed, and Ashley decided to stay still a listen for a while before Micah saw her and realised that she was back.

"Micah? Heh. He crawled out of the outhouse on day and Dutch was so amazed, he asked him to stay" Sean joked, laughing to himself and earning a small laugh from Lenny and Bill while Micah just rolled his eyes.

"Well...where was it?" Bill asked, encouraging Micah to tell the story.

"I heard all of you fools drone on...I mean, you ain't fools, but...you sound foolish. I like Dutch, but he didn't save my life, I saved his. Maybe he never told you, but fact is, I stopped him getting killed in a bar fight in Crenshaw Hills. He was trying to sell some gold you boys had stolen...annoyed some locals. So...I saved his life" Micah explained with ease, so either to story was true or he was a really good liar. Ashley didn't know if it was true because, just like the others, she didn't actually know that much about Micah.

"No...no, no. That ain't true!" Bill stood up, pointing at the blonde man accusingly.

"I believe you" Ashley hummed, shrugging slightly as she stepped towards the fire, joining the others there. Part of her statement was to assure Micah that somebody believed him but another part was to interrupt them before an argument broke out.

The five men turned to look at her, but Micah was the only one with a smug look on his face. He could get used to having someone fighting his corner like this. "That's m'girl" Micah smirked, looking pretty damn proud of himself.

Lenny and Sean instantly cringed at the pet-name, disgusted by Micah calling Ashley "m'girl" but they were more confused by the fact that she didn't recoil in disgust or straight up punch him in the face for it. Bill huffed as he turned and walked away, he wasn't going to argue with Ashley, he didn't see any need for it.

Ashley just chuckled to herself as she took a sip of her beer, letting out a disgruntled gasp as she nearly choked on the beer, being pulled down against her will. She composed herself when she realised what had happened. Ashley had been standing close enough to Micah for him to casually reach up and grab her waist, pulling her down onto his lap.

She tried not to laugh out loud at Micah's behaviour, talk about laying it on thick. She just realised how dedicated Micah was to revealing this whole thing to the rest of the camp, he wasn't at all subtle.

Micah had one arm wrapped around her waist to prevent her loosing balance and falling off of his lap, and his other hand was resting casually on her thigh. Sean, Lenny, and Hosea looked at them with confused expressions. Sean looked like his head was going to explode from processing the scene. Ashley just chuckled to herself as she took a sip of her beer, shaking her head at Micah's behaviour.

Hosea chuckled to himself, shaking his head as he stood up and walked away from the fire. He would be lying if he said that he hadn't had his suspicious about the pair, this was pretty much just confirming it.

"Hell, Ash, how drunk are you?" Sean asked, raising an eyebrow at them. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to laugh or throw up.

"This is my first drink of the day, Sean" Ashley shook her head, holding the bottle up in the air as if it was proving something to the red-head.

"Oh...so you just lost your mind?" he hummed, nodding like that was the only over option.

"You have a problem, MacGuire?" Micah asked, his voice gruff with a threatening edge. Of course Sean thought that the only way Ashley could be interested in Micah was if she was drunk or just insane.

Sean looked at Lenny with an expression of disbelief, the poor man couldn't quite understand what was happening. Lenny just laughed at the expression on his face, leaving Sean alone to fight this argument.

"I have so many problems! Ashley, get the fuck off of Micah. Micah, fucking let her go" Sean rambled, jumping to his feet and pointing at them while throwing orders at the pair that honestly just amused them.

"Sean, calm down. There's nothing wrong" Ashley assured him, chuckling slightly even though she felt a little bad for him. Just something about the look on his face made her want to explain everything to him.

"Nothing wrong? All of this is wrong. Ash, you can do better" the Irishman pointed out, like he was suddenly going to change her mind.

"I don't want better. Sean, just calm down. It's alright. I'm okay" Ashley assured him, her face suddenly going serious but comforting. She knew that Sean was just concerned about her but everything was really okay, more than okay actually.

"Yeah, yeah, okay, sure, okay" Sean nodded, mumbling to himself. He had always had a small flare for the dramatic.

"Sean...you okay? You need to talk?" Ashley asked, offering to talk to him privately. She knew that Sean was being dramatic (and possibly a little drunk) but she hoped that it wouldn't be like this with the rest of the camp.

"No...I'm okay. Lenny, wanna walk?" Sean asked, looking down to where Lenny was sitting.

"Sure" Lenny laughed as he stood up, having spent the whole conversation just watching with an amused expression on his face. Lenny patted Sean on the shoulder before they both walked away.

Once the two men had walked away from the fire, Ashley turned her head to look at Micah properly for the first time since she sat down. "I think you got your point across" she teased as she wrapped one of her arms around his shoulders, holding her beer in her other hand that rested in her lap.

"Good" Micah mumbled, only to hum when she quickly kissed him.

"Now, get off of me. I'm going to bed, you can finish my drink" Ashley smiled as she pushed Micah's hands away and stood up, holding her beer out to him. He smirked and took the beer from Ashley, taking a sip from it as he watched her walking away towards her tent.

Ashley sighed tiredly as changed into something more comfortable to sleep in and brushed her hair out. Just as she was about to lay down on the cot, she heard the canvas shift behind her. She turned around and raised an eyebrow when she saw Micah standing in the entrance of her tent.

"What are you doin' here?" she asked, smirking at Micah as he stepped in and closed the canvas behind him.

"Ain't gotta sneak around no more" Micah shrugged, smirking a little himself as he removed his hat and placed it down on the small table in your tent.

"The cot ain't big enough for two" Ashley faked a dramatic sigh as she gestured towards the single person son, a challenging look in her eyes that caught his attention.

"Well, we got to figure something out then, haven't we?" he asked, pulling his jacket off.

"I suppose we do" she nodded before turning away from him and climbing onto the cot, laying down under the thin sheet.

Micah finished undressing before climbing onto the cot, laying beside Ashley as he pulled the sheet over himself as well. "Told you it wasn't big enough" Ashley mumbled, referring to the uncomfortable fit.

"And you call me dumb" Micah rolled his eyes before snaking his arm under her torso, she furrowed her brow at him before letting him pull her towards him. She rolled over and lazily threw her arm over his chest. "Better?" he asked, looking down at her with a bored expression.

"Didn't realise you like to cuddle" Ashley chuckled to herself, resting her head on his shoulder without argument.

"We ain't cuddling" Micah grumbled, yet he tightened his hold on her, holding her against him a little more securely but comfortably for the both of them.

"Ah see, you are dumb" she teased, turning her head to press a tired and gentle kiss to his bare shoulder before laying her head back down.

Micah felt Ashley fall asleep again him, losing himself in his thoughts. He still wondered why Ashley was sometimes so tender with him. Of course they had the teasing, the insults, and the banter, but sometimes she was just be so tender with him and he didn't understand why. However, he hadn't really noticed that he too had his moments where he let a tender gesture escape him.

Micah just hummed as he shook off those thoughts, squeezing Ashley waist gently before drifting off to sleep himself.